Compulsion Faulted Love
by JacobSalvatoreBlack
Summary: We all know Damon compelled Elena after telling her he loved her. What if his compulsion just didn't work? How will Elena handle his sincere bout of love for her? Read to find out!


_**This takes place just after Damon tells Elena that he is in love with her, compels her to forget, and gives her back her necklace. Happy reading! **_

**Chapter 0ne – Compulsion Faulted Love**

**The speaking parts directly from the episode are BOLDED**

**Elena's POV**

"**I brought you this," **Damon said, my vervain necklace in hand.

"**I thought that was gone," **I gasped. Damon shook his head, grinning. I reached out to retrieve it. **"Thank you,"** I told Damon, just as he pulled it back out of my reach.** "Please give it back."**

"**I just have to say something," **he explained.

"**Why do you have to say it with my necklace?" **I asked. Damon looked momentarily lost in thought, his brow creasing, a small frown playing at the corners of his mouth.

"**Because," **he answered,** "what I am about to say is…probably the most selfish thing I've ever said in my life."**

"**Damon, don't go there," **I frowned, looking away for a moment, then shaking my head.

"**Look, I just have to say it once. You just need to hear it."** He walked closer to me, our faces only inches apart as he looked into my eyes. **"I love you, Elena. And it's because I love you that…I can't be selfish with you. Why you can't know this. I don't deserve you. But my brother does." **

I stared in shock at how much Damon had opened up to me. He leaned forward. I thought at first that he would lean down to kiss me on the lips, but instead, he placed his lips to my forehead for a moment and drew back. He looked so sad.

"**God, I wish you didn't have to forget this. But you do." **Damon looked me directly in the eyes again, only this time I could tell that he was trying to compel me. His pupils grew twice in size, and he wouldn't break eye contact with me.

…

But the compulsion wasn't working for some reason. I wasn't quite sure why, but before I could really do anything about it, my necklace had been clasped back around my neck, and Damon wasn't anywhere in sight.

I sighed, looking at the spot where Damon had occupied only moments before. He had sounded so sincere, his love for me so real. What was I to do? I had always been able to feel some sort of pull towards Damon, but I had never thought anything of it other than it being due to our friendship. Now, I was conflicted, both with my rational thought, and my intuition of right and wrong.

It would be completely wrong to ignore his feelings for me and treat him like I had been since our friendship began. Then again, it would also be completely wrong to ignore him just because of what I heard, and to keep acting the same way around Stefan. On a third point, would it be wrong to embrace Damon's love for me? To draw it in and try to find out if my feelings for him were…dare I say more than what I felt for his brother? How was I to be sure of anything?

After hours of mulling through my newest life dilemma, I made a decision. I had to go talk to Damon. I also had to talk to Stefan, see what he thought of what was going on.

I knocked on the front door, hoping Damon would answer it before Stefan. I really didn't care to have to explain what I was doing here to him before Damon even knew his compulsion hadn't worked on me. No one answered the door, so I used the key Stefan had given me to open it.

My adventure up the stairs was quiet…almost morgue quiet. The silence freaked me out just a tad. I had never been in Damon's room, but knew where it was, courtesy of constantly seeing him slink away to vent in it.

"Go away," Damon murmured when I entered his room. It was large, with a king sized bed adorned with black silk sheets, a t-v, large Maplewood desk, separate bathroom, and a bathtub in the corner of the main room, atop pearly marble-looking tiles.

I tiptoed over to Damon.

"Damon," I called. He wouldn't answer. "Damon, it's me."

"Katherine?" Damon asked, lifting his head off of one of the many pillows. "How did you get out of the tomb?"

"Damon, it's Elena. Katherine is still in the tomb, you know that."

"Elena, what are you doing here at…" he checked his bedside clock, "two o'clock in the morning? Come to wake me for some kind of emergency?"

"No emergency."

"Then what are you doing? Are you looking for your boy-toy? Stefan's out hunting bunnies. Then he's headed to get some new clothes in Perrytown. You know…most of his clothes were kind of covered in some form of blood. He had to burn them. Back on subject, why are you here?"

"I need to talk to you."

"About what? What couldn't have possibly waited until the moon went away? You know, the sun does go down for a reason."

"I need to talk to you about us, our friendship." Damon shot up, eyes suddenly open.

"Keep talking. What about it?"

"Well, I've been thinking. I know you were right. There is something here. Something between the two of us."

"I knew it! Continue."

"Well, I'm not quite sure what to say…how to say this…"

"I can wait for you to find the right words."

"That's not it. To know how I really feel…well, I don't know how to figure out what I really feel for you."

"Umm…" Damon was lost in shock.

"Damon?"

"Hmm, I have been listening."

I closed the space between us, and touched my lips to Damon's.


End file.
